Anmelden
Hi readers, we are the team UBUNTU.
For those who do not know, UBUNTU is a word of Bantu origin that indicates a way of life.
It is a philosophy that supports collectivism over individualism, that's exactly the spirit which shapes our team.
We embrace the request for “a humanity in reciprocity” - Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu - “I am what I am by virtue of what we all are”, invoked by the word Ubuntu will be our motto.
It means supporting one another, becoming aware not only of one’s rights but also of one’s duties. Interaction, participation, recognition, respect and inclusion, which are the cornerstones of Ubuntu education, will likewise be the groundwork of our team.
Let’s present it:
Project Manager: S. Bellomare
Head of Research: F. Spatafora
Social Media Manager: A. Forestieri, G. Natoli, C. Stecca, A. Magnasco
Blogger: R. Palazzo
Designer: S. Messina
Storyteller: M. Ben Cheikh
Coder: J. Ravindran, R. Mangia
Analyst: M. Giunta, M. Miranda, C. Dinatale, A. Liton
Now our logo. It illustrates the destruction, the ruin and the regression that a flood can cause on a hydrogeologically fragile environment. The white, bubbly wave represents our team's commitment to the problem of hydrogeological instability Sicilian people are increasingly exposed to.
With our research we can help the local authority become more accountable through a better and clearer communication on how public spending is concerned, increasing the trust of citizens. Our civic monitoring will be a way to cooperate proactively with local public institutions and contribute to the development of the community.
With our research we want to highlight the collective responsibility we ALL have in front of the hydrogeological instability in our region.
Landslides, floods, coastal erosions, subsidences and avalanches are due to climate change… but not only. Their effects could be reduced, indeed, with a better administration of the territory and a reduction of cementification often permitted by special amnesties authorized for political interests. That’s what we want to deal with and the reason why we have embraced this project we are going to illustrate.
One in 15 Sicilians lives in landslide risk areas. Since climate change has led to natural disasters, the risk has increasingly approached the threshold of danger. Yet, bad weather is perceived as a danger as long as it rains and the roads flood. But it seems that when the sun returns, worries also dry up. Perhaps this is the reason why public administrators have so far spent little and badly funds to deal with hydrogeological instability. A problem also generated by illegal building and amnesties very often packaged for political interests.
But today there is an additional danger. The accelerated climate change that we are observing in recent decades is producing frequent and adverse weather phenomena such as showers and thunderstorms, hailstorms, tornadoes, storms, frosts, snowfalls, heat waves, causing damage and loss of life.
There is no need to add anything else for action. Yet, if we compare the public funds allocated and those actually spent, the natural devastations in Sicily remain a remote danger.
The UBUNTU team feels that the problem of hydrogeological instability affects everyone: from those who lost their homes to whom had to close their businesses, and even concerns our mate Joseph from the third class technological graphics, who has to take over 2 hours to reach our school from the neighboring territory of Belmonte Mezzagno, which due to a landslide has remained isolated from Palermo.
It is for all those who were, are or will be victims of such phenomena, that we have chosen to monitor the project of € 11,817,765.63 for measures to mitigate the risk of flooding in the south-eastern area of Palermo.
In accordance with the lines adopted by the National Plan 2015/2020 against instability and with the national strategy on climate change, the July 2017 Notice, POR ERDF/FESR Sicily 2014-2020, intended to finance structural operations of geomorphological, hydraulic and coastal erosion risk mitigation on sites with a high degree of risk, and operations capable of determining a reduction in the area subject to risk.
€ 155,000,000, including € 31,000,000 to finance operations to mitigate the risk of coastal erosion in the island. Our project is part of this bigger financing.
Now…
- If we think that from 2010 to 31 October 2022 there were 1,503 extreme events in Italy with 780 affected municipalities and 279 victims and that, among the most affected regions, there is Sicily with 175 extreme events according the 2022 report of the “Osservatorio Città Clima”;
- If we consider that global warming affects precipitative extreme events such as the phenomena of "flash floods", able to discharge in a few hours quantities of water that normally discharge in five or six months, causing human victims and environmental devastation;
- If we add to the above facts the critical condition of our regional territory devoured and disemboweled by cement and asphalt;
We assumed that, in the light of these urgencies, the funding of our project, belonging to the 2014-2020 EU structural funds, should have been paid, might have been close to the end, or at least at 50% of its execution.
Not at all. It's not our case. The portal shows up: expected start 1 September 2022, effective start at the moment not available, expected end 30 June 2023.
Why such a long delay?
How can local authorities allow so much time to pass before the danger announced?
How can municipalities slow down procedures because of incompleteness or even the lack of projects to be funded?
Where is that civic sense of UBUNTU that reminds us that “I am what I am by virtue of what we all are”?
"In good weather worries dry up". But while we are writing this report, it’s hailing outside and Joseph probably will have to get up at 5 a.m. to be at school in time!
